Wednesday 3 September 2014

New Victorian military wargame!

Strategos by Charles Totten US Army 1880

I came across this through a chance reference on BGG. It is by a US artillery lieutenant and published in two volumes in 1880 with the approval of the US army. It is of interest for a number of reasons:

1. I don't think I have ever heard of this work before and it may be missing from our collective view of the development of the wargame (it is not mentioned in Martin van Creveld's recent study for example).

2. It is a clear successor of von Reiswitz, von Tschishwitz and Baring's rules, although Totten claims to have developed his rules without reference to other games.

3. It is complex, multi-layered and multi-purpose, perhaps to the point of being too complex to use (I've heard that one before somewhere!).

You can find a digital version at Hathi Trust. For ease of reference I append here the title page and index. Enjoy!







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